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10 Questions with ... Chrissy Metz
August 31, 2020
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Best known for her role as “Kate Pearson” on NBC’s hit drama “This Is Us,” Chrissy Metz calls music her “first love.” Universal Music Group (UMG) Nashville announced her signing in January, following her starring role in 20th Century Fox’s 2019 “Breakthrough” movie. She appeared on the film’s UMG-released soundtrack with her performance of the Oscar-nominated, Diane Warren-penned song, “I’m Standing With You.” Her first radio single, “Talking To God,” went to Country radio in late July, and is being promoted by UMG’s EMI Records Nashville team.
In 2018, her book, “This Is Me: Loving The Person You Are Today,” became a New York Times bestseller. Metz shares her musical and personal journey in a regular Facebook livestream, “The Dreamers,” where she spreads a message of positivity to her fans. She also recently launched a weekly radio show, “Country Faith Radio With Chrissy Metz,” on the new Apple Music Country station. After a planned tour was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been spending time in Nashville finishing her debut album, which is expected to be preceded by an EP release.
1. How long have you been singing? Since you were a kid?
Yeah, I sang in middle school because my mom couldn’t afford an instrument for band, and all the cool kids were in band. I joined the choir and I just was like, “Wow, this is where it’s at.”
Music has always been healing for me, whether going to church, or [when] we listened to Motown when I was six or seven years old and we lived in Japan. But it wasn’t really until middle school that I realized I enjoy singing, and then getting enough courage to join chamber choir in high school my senior year.
But it was something I was always doing around house, in my room making little tapes on my boom box and stuff. It just took a long time to do it in front of people.
2. Speaking of doing it in front of people, your first two performances in the Country world – the 2019 ACM Awards and the CMT Artist Of the Year show – were not only both super high profile, they were both live. How nerve wracking was that?
I'm very good in front of people. I love people. I love to engage with people. But when I’m doing something like singing that I wanted to do all my life, in front of people I’ve been listening to all my life, oh my God. Oh my God! [I’m] like, “Okay, Chrissy, you’re going to have to just put your big girl panties on and figure it out”… I always say I’m learning, literally, in the public eye on live television. It is definitely a fast course into figuring out glitches and mistakes and how to fix them. It’s nerve wracking … [but] suiting up and showing up is sometimes the lesson, and you don't get better by not doing it.
3. How did your deal with UMG Nashville come about? Was it through the “Breakthrough” film soundtrack?
UMG [had] all those incredible ladies like Mickey [Guyton] and Lauren [Alaina] and Maddie & Tae and Carrie [Underwood] all in this soundtrack. [UMG President] Cindy Mabe had this brilliant idea of putting us all together on the ACM Awards. I was like, “What in the heck?” I could never have dreamt that up, and it was such a cool moment.
[But] basically, like, five seconds before the curtain went up, my [mic] pack, wasn't attached to my ears and I couldn’t hear anything. I didn't know what to do. Like, do I not perform on live television, in front of Country royalty? I’m like, “Holy moly. If I can get through the song that’ll be a victory.” A very stressful situation.
I told Cindy [that story] and she was like, “I had no idea. That was so impressive that you kept your cool.” And I was like, “Well, what was I going to do? I just have to keep it moving. The show must go on.” And [then I told her] I’ve been coming back and forth [to Nashville] because I really am interested in the whole process, and the songwriting and really wanting to be an artist, and not just somebody who sings other people’s songs all the time. So by the grace of God, by the universe, she offered me a deal. And my little girl dreams came true, because music was my first love … It’s so amazing how things work out.
4. You mentioned a lot of musical influences growing up, but how did you land on Country? Was that just a function of signing with the Nashville label, or had you been a fan of the genre?
Oh, no, I’ve been listening to Country forever, and grew up with Hank Williams and the Charlie Daniels band and Charley Pride -- old school guys that my parents would listen to. It was just always the kind of music that I enjoyed. When you hear the verse and you want to see what the turn is at the chorus and how the song unfolds, it was always so exciting. Country music in particular is like the storytelling genre, and I love telling stories.
Everyone’s like, “Wait a minute, you like Country music?” I’m like, “Are you kidding me? Yes, I’ve been listening to it all my life.” But I know it probably seemed sort of out of the blue, for people who don’t know me.
I tried to do a little music on the side in between “American Horror Story” and “This Is Us,” and it didn’t feel right. [But now,] because I enjoy the values of Country music so much, and the storytelling and even the instruments, like pedal steel with the B3, it just made sense. It just felt right.
5. Most new Country artists launch with a radio tour, something that has not been possible for you because of the pandemic. I've seen that you're doing some Zoom with Country radio programmers. How’s all that going?
I feel spoiled rotten. Listen, I know what a movie tour and a book tour look like, and it is not easy. It is physically draining. And so I feel spoiled that I get to just go out in my living room, open up a laptop and taa-daa! I get to chat with everybody and literally go across the country in an hour. It’s been really fun because not only do we all, I think, desire some human connection, but it's cool to meet and talk to new people. I’ve been listening to the radio all my life, and [whether] I’m fans of a particular show or just getting to know people in that realm, it’s really fun. I really enjoy it.
6. Do you kind of feel like “Talking to God” resonates deeper now because of the pandemic and the crazy state of the country?
Yeah, that’s what I find so fascinating is we weren’t sure if that was going to be the single, but then when we tracked it and all the beautiful music came together, we’re like, “Oh, this is cool.” It’s such a great message, but also very emotional. We had no idea when we picked it for the single that it would be coming out during this time. You couldn’t even plan that. It’s just so crazy that the timing would work out this way.
7. What other kinds of songs that you’re finding and writing for your first album?
For me, I just want to tell a story, and I started writing songs that were like life lessons, [like] learning how to fix a broken heart. One song I wrote with Nicolette Hayford and Lainey Wilson called “Pretty Girl,” that is really about how the things that we think make us beautiful -- the external, outside stuff -- is not what actually makes us beautiful, but [rather] who we are and how we show up in the world and how we treat people. That was just something that was really important to me.
Obviously I’m an open book and I've talked about my entire life in my book, but the healing journey of getting through these life lessons and how they affect me and how they, hopefully, will impact and affect other people is just sort of what I wanted to share.
We just wrote a song the other day about [how] we have to leave this place better than we found it, whether it's our friendships, or whether it’s the room that we just walked into. So it’s just really about what’s been on my heart, or my mind, or life lessons and what resonates with my evolution as a human, as big and as massive as that sounds. Just love, and loss, and heartbreak and life lessons.
8. What was your tour going to look like before it got canceled because of COVID? What kind of venues were you going to play in, and how long were you going to be out?
It was 12 cities that we had on the books, and there were, like, 500-seat venues. I wanted something very intimate, that kind of energy. The only bigger location was going to be my hometown in Gainesville, which ironically would have been a location that I sang at in high school. Eventually [this tour] will happen, so I’m looking forward to that.
9. Did you have to actually do a singing audition for the “Kate Pearson” role on “This Is Us,” or was it just sort of serendipitous that the character happened to be a singer like you?
It was serendipitous. In the breakdown, it wasn’t ever mentioned [that Kate was a singer], but I think the writers had an idea like, “Oh, wouldn’t it be an extra cool layer of Rebecca and Kate’s relationship that Kate wanted to follow in her mom’s footsteps and Rebecca never fulfilled that dream, and Kate doesn’t think she ever will.” But no, I never auditioned. Even the first time I got a script with the italics in it, which means, they’re singing, I was like, “Wait, what is this?” And [showrunner] Dan [Fogelman] was like, “Oh, Chrissy, if you don't want to sing, we’ll just dub it. Somebody else can do it.” And I’m like, “No, can I try? I think it would be so cool.”
10. Speaking of “This Is Us,” any word on when the show’s going to resume production?
We have to figure out how the logistics of it, ‘cause, you know, there’s a hundred people on set at any given time between the whole cast and the crew. And then, obviously, the actors are going to be the most susceptible because we don’t wear PPE [while filming]. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if we’re going to be quarantined. I don’t know if we’re going to be shooting our own scenes on our own iPhones. I don’t know … We’re eager to get back, and hopefully sooner rather than later.
Bonus Questions
Ashley McBryde is one of the co-writers on your debut single. Were you a fan of hers prior to that?
Yes, absolutely. She’s so just like talented, cool, and just so badass. So it was really cool to like even have this be an option and have her blessing. Very cool. She’s just so funny. Oh my God, she’s funny! She’s great.
Your Facebook group, The Dreamers, seems like a place for positivity. Was that kind of the goal?
Yeah, for sure. It’s been really fun. We talk about some heavy stuff at times, people bring up questions about all the mental health, their weight issues or whatever, but it always comes back to the positivity and how can we live better together than we are apart.
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